In the latest phase of the music industry’s race to the bottom, Spotify announced last week that it would give artists more visibility in its algorithm in exchange for reduced royalty payments. Those would be even lower than the current rate, which is about a third of a cent per play. The tradeoff follows a decades-long trend affecting virtually all American industries: the devaluation of workers.
If the pandemic has shown us one thing, it’s that we need art to keep us going. When we needed a bit of joy—or motivation or commiseration—during this horrific year, our favorite songs have been there. Yet the people creating music we love, with the exception of the industry’s top stars, are struggling to make a living as the concert industry flounders during COVID-19. Now is not the time for Spotify to use independent artists’ eagerness to get noticed to lower their earnings even further.
Since the music industry shifted its profit model from recorded music to touring and merchandise, there’s been less incentive for labels or individual artists to spend time on labor-intensive projects. Singles have taken precedence over albums, and the success of artists like 24kGoldn, ppcocaine and Stunna Girl on TikTok have proven that a catchy 30-second snippet is a much more efficient and effective way to become popular than writing a longwinded opus.
Talent and substance are still needed to keep an audience’s attention after going viral. But the financial endgame now (at least, pre-pandemic) is not to make money from recorded music, but to use music as a promotional tool to sell concert tickets and merchandise, secure brand collaborations and appearance fees, and earn enough money to enter more lucrative businesses—such as investing in real estate, which is many artists’ path to long-term financial security.
